Showing that good sermons are really local theology and folk art, Princeton's Leonora Tubbs Tisdaye tells how to analyze a congregation to fit a sermon to the audience. The book then gives practical help for preparing and delivering sermons that are meaningful and appropriate. Tisdale draws from contextual theology and congregational studies.

For all preachers who take seriously the church's role as a catalyst of social and spiritual transformation, James Harris advocates the salient features of liberation preaching, especially as exemplified in black-church settings.

With this helpful guide, preachers can find new and powerful resources for preaching in Johannine language and thought, as well as its use of narrative and discourse. It combines the practical with proposals for understanding the Gospel and 1 John.

An expert guide from Galillee to Jerusalem This new resource examines the major literary units of Mark's Gospel with an eye toward helping the pastor in sermon preparation. Rather than major themes, Thurston guides the reader through the lectionary readings and how Mark's work offers a wealth of materials for Christian life and reflection.

Centering on five particular situations of suffering--loss, illness, violence, fear, and failure--this book suggests ways in which a pastor can preach to parishioners who are experiencing trauma. Three sample sermons illustrate how to preach on God's gracious activity, while avoiding "psychologizing the text" and reducing the gospel to cheap therapy for individual problems.

Stiller argues that Jesus' parables, through their narrative, personal, and oral dimensions and reversal of expectations, provide unique access to Christianity for those whose experience and hopes we label postmodern. Aligning contemporary scholarship with today's cultural assumptions, Stiller offers preachers a working knowledge of postmodern sensibilities, an understanding of the parable genre, an analysis of ten parables, and a sample of how one might preach them effectively. However we understand the 'postmodern' era, we are not 'post' the need to pay careful attention to the parables of...

Marilyn Salmon's persuasive and practical work helps preachers to identify the ways that Christian preachers perpetuate the long tradition of Christian anti-Judaism. She situates the Gospels precisely as Jewish literature then addresses specific thorny issues that arise in preaching: supersessionism; portrayals of the Law; the Pharisees; the relationship between the Testaments; preaching the Passion; and misrepresentations of Judaism. Using examples from many sermons, she shows how to avoid the pitfalls of misportraying the people of Jesus.

Reclaiming and proclaiming the Christian heritage- Fewer people today are familiar with the vital theological ideas from the Christian tradition. Preaching about the continuing relevance and richness of this heritage is one of the pastor's most important responsibilities in this age of relativities. Robert Hughes and Robert Kysar show how this situation has come about and offer imaginative and empowering suggestions for proclaiming Christianity's profoundest truths to a new generation. "Preaching Doctrine is a delightfully clear and helpful re-introduction to the theological art of preaching....

The Passion as story- "Blackwell again and again says that the preacher needs to couple detailed textual readings with preaching. And I say, 'Amen!' How the narrative actually works in its detail can aid us incalculably in our presentation of the Word of God." - John C. Holbert, Professor of Homiletics Perkins School of Theology, Dallas Blackwell explores the Passion Story in Mark 14:1-16:8, then offers concrete suggestions for preaching, teaching, and Bible study. He contends that "the story of the cross as contained in Mark's Passion Story provides a significant way to understand the...

Preaching as art and liturgy- Liturgy as the work of God's people gives the preacher a place to stand-an organic connection with an intentional sacramental community, says Rice. The place of preaching is the community, Christ's body, and the hermeneutic that governs homiletical exegesis, style, and presentation comes from the liturgical situation of the sermon. The Embodied Word puts preaching in its proper place-in the presence of the baptistry and close to the table. As Rice explores the implications of that placement for the specific concerns of homiletics, the use of Scripture, and the...